'We watched a baby bear taking a nap up a tree' – family adventures on a cruise in Alaska

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You can’t beat an Alaskan cruise for an active and adventurous family holiday amid spectacular scenery, writes Jo Kessel

‘Iceberg on the left,” warned our guide, Jesse. There were nine of us paddling a native Indian canoe, including my husband and three children: twins Nathalie and Gabriel, 13, and Hannah, 12. We were on the outskirts of Alaska’s capital, Juneau, and this berg, with the sculpted form of a giant swan, was unexpected. It was one of several floating nearby that had broken off from Mendenhall Glacier, which loomed around the corner.

Hannah looked anxious. “What happens if we hit it?” she asked. “We won’t,” said Jesse, as he steered us from danger. “We’re halfway, just another mile to go.”

We upped the pace to keep warm, the squawks of Arctic terns drowning out the splash of our oars. Once we turned the corner we forgot the cold. The glacier presented itself in dramatic glory – giant shelves of ethereal blue ice spiked in angular formations. The colours of glacier, sky and sun were so intense that the scene looked as if it had been Photoshopped.

This “native canoe adventure”, on day three of our Alaska cruise from San Francisco, was unlike any other ship’s excursion I had experienced. Part of Princess Cruises’ Discovery at Sea programme, and run in conjunction with TV’s Discovery Channel, it was designed to mix education with fun.

Covering 3.3 million acres of glaciers, forest and fjords, Glacier Bay National Park is other-worldlyCredit:
iStock

Our 48-hour pre-cruise stay in San Francisco had been about squeezing it all in – Alcatraz, Golden Gate Park and Fisherman’s Wharf – as well as enjoying time at our central hotel, The Sir Francis Drake. But this vast Alaskan wilderness demanded that we not just slow down, but stop and replace “oar” with awe.

Juneau was the first port of call for Golden Princess, but so much had happened on our 72-hour journey there. From the connecting balconies of our adjacent cabins, we had spotted porpoises, dolphins and countless whales.

A fellow passenger asked if I was counting my sightings (he had seen 17 humpbacks). We also won two competitions, first a trivia quiz (prize: cool fridge bulldog-clip magnets) and then the game Majority Rules, where there are no wrongs or rights, just majority answers. We won a bottle of bubbly and achieved minor celebrity status.

Weather was the big topic of conversation. Would it be cold? Or rain? If it does, the scenery is even more dramatic… allegedly.

Adrenaline kicksCredit:
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During the day we had spent most of our time on the pool deck, with the children flitting between the pool and Shockwaves, the kids’ club for ages 8-12. A Discovery-inspired “shark morning” had them digging for sharks’ teeth and learning shark trivia. While Hannah enjoyed it, my twins (almost teenagers) had probably outgrown the club. Far more successful was the Junior Chef at Sea cookery class ($25) Nathalie signed up for, in which a patisserie chef taught her to ice a cake like a professional.

In the restaurants the chefs recreated local specialities, including crab cakes and halibut burgers. In the main dining room, dishes such as watermelon and feta salad, Alaska-style seafood soup and all-American meatloaf hit the spot. Often, ships’ buffets have a large selection, yet nothing I fancy. At Horizon Court they go for quality over quantity, and it works.

One ingredient, thus far, was missing; my desire to spot a wild bear had become a broken record. At Skagway, which resembles an old wild-west town, I was optimistic. The most popular excursion here was a ride on a vintage railway into the Yukon, replicating the journey made by gold-rush fortune-hunters, but at $330 each it was pricey for a family of five. Instead we went hiking.

The six-mile Lower Dewey Lake trail began at a creek heaving with silvery salmon jumping upstream to spawn. We were certain we could fish one out of the shallow water with our hands – later we met a Texan who did just that. Ever hopeful, I felt that where there are salmon there must be hungry bears. The walk, around a mountain lake, was spectacular. We saw red squirrels and fairy-tale toadstools. The kids loved it and it cost us nothing.

Alaska has more bears than any other state in North AmericaCredit:
iStock

Later we went zip-lining and there was much promise in the location’s name: Grizzly Falls. Guides Zach and Fabio made a memorable duo with their woodcutter beards, encouraging the children (to mum’s horror) to tumble and somersault 60ft off the rainforest floor. I whimpered along the wires, but on the 11th and final line I braved a back-flip in the hope of enticing the bears out of hiding. Fail.

Bears were shy the next day too, in Glacier Bay National Park, where we saw another spectacle: glacier calving. Park rangers came on board to provide live commentary and talk to the children about conservation – as a massive block of ice crashed into the sea.

As the itinerary drew to a close, we independently visited the Rainforest Sanctuary, eight miles from Ketchikan in Herring Cove. We were on the trail for all of five minutes when we saw not just one bear, but several – and oh, the elation. A baby bear was taking a nap up a tree and a mother played with three cubs. Another grizzly fished salmon from a stream. For an hour we watched as bears came and went, just a few metres from where we stood.

The scale and remoteness of the landscape, coupled with its wildlife, made this a family cruise of a lifetime. There were numerous highlights, but my wish list was fulfilled not only by the bear encounter but by seeing the children so engaged with their surroundings that they forgot about their devices.

Taking children to Alaska is a big investment. Will they remember it? The answer is a resounding yes.